Unexpected First Contact
by XV-Dragon
Summary: Humanity did not reach the stars without facing the great obstacle of over coming their destructive nature, but not one had expected their first contact with a member of an alien race who's aggression made humans look peaceful. Even fewer would expect it would lead to an alliance that would shake the stars themselves.


AN: For those who know my W.I.T.C.H. works, I'm finally back and will be getting back to my old fics once I break out of my rut from being gone so long (college and job hunting killed my muse and free time for what I think has been 3 years now)

For those ME fans reading this, hoping you like the idea that Full-Paragon's 'And Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy' inspired though made some changes to avoid it being a retelling, this first of which being a shown in the Alliance's history.

000

Unexpected First Contact

Prologue: Rise of Humanity

In 2040 civil unrest was starting to heavily effect many of the first world countries. The global recession making employment and the prices on basic goods steadily increase, wars over resources and religion still consumed the middle east and home grown terrorists were simply pushing even the likes American, Russian, Chinese and British governments to their breaking points.

For once many agreed they needed to help each other regain some measure of stability so the global could in turn be stabilized, but the exact method seemed impossible to be decided on.

One option was for all developed nations to finally agree on a mass invasion of the middle east to put an end to the fears various the terrorist cells and the tyrants eventually gaining weapons of mass destruction an secure needed resources. This plan was quickly put aside had some clear draw back such as making the middle east truly unite against the rest of the world and make this new war just add to the problems they already had.

The second option was to create a heavy push for colonizing the moon and once there was solid foundation, use it as a spring board to reach Mars. This would hopefully open enough jobs in various areas and thus improve the economy for both the preparations to reach these two location and once they had been reached.

The main down side to the second option though was fact it would still needed a large amount of funding and recourses to achieve, something the countries gathered to discuss these issues were struggling with in at least terms of money.

Sadly hand of these countries were forced to switch to the option they wished to avoid when Pakistan and Iran launched a joint invasion of Israel, forcing the US and Europe moved to aid Israel.

At the same time North Korea fired a short range and low yield nuclear missile at South Korea, causing China and Russia to join with Japan to hopefully force China's former ally to at least stand down. In previous decades this was something no one would be would see happen, but with China and Russia both agreed restoring at least some level of global stability took precedence over their prefer political stances for the time being.

The war with North Korea last for a little over a year, since both Russia and China's military alone dwarfed North Korea on their own, when you combine their efforts with Japan and South Korea's it was clear who would win, hence why the North fired additional nuclear missiles at these countries.

The outcome of this deviated the South and did a fair share of damage to parts of China (mainly through short range strikes) but Japan and Russia had enough distance to intercept these strikes. This left the four allies remaining forces striking back with the wrath of a god once North Korea's small stockpile of nuclear weapon ran dry, the South in particular despite being hardest hit of the four.

The North was attacked with only with conventional weapons, but that was all that was needed with such an over whelming number of forces that hit without mercy, which would eventually lead to the renunciation of Korea once the smoke cleared...what was left of it at least. In a few short years Korea would be forced to merge with China due to the nuclear fallout devastating most the peninsula and thus needed the support of the larger nation could provide.

For the war between Iran and Pakistan VS Israel and its allies from the west, took the a year just to halt the invasion and push the two countries back to their own borders. Fighting them in their own territory was a different matter.

When it was one country at a time and from a strong economic starting point, a US led UN strike would normally win the 'main war' within 6 months to a year and then shift to a peacekeeping mission, but this time it was two countries that needed to be struck at the same time and no one was on ideal footing for war.

To make matters worse, home grown terrorist groups posing as antiwar protesters caused massive riots in North America and Europe by saying the war in the middle east was just a repeat of American 'war or Terror' after 9/11.

These additional problems made it hard for many of the western countries to get public backing for the war, so the US was forced deployed a new type gas that was meant to neutralize targets by relaxing the muscles to the point a person could not move in both the middle east and on the rioters in their own country.

From a military view the gas was meant to hit targets that were too close to civilian areas or deployed as away to avoid friendly fire in a major battle that needed a quick end but had ally troops could not move to a safe distance. The use on rioters was due to the police forces were simply pushed beyond their limit to keep mobs inline and the fact military reinforcement was limited due to the war.

The gas did it job exceptionally well on both fronts to the point allied forces requested it for use in their own riots, quickly have the new gas codenamed 'Peace Bringer' as it ended riots across Europe. Many human right groups called this the tyranny by using chemical or even biotical weapons on a civilian population, but few dared rally this time under another groups call to oppose government order.

All governments that had used Peace Bringer knew that the peace the achieved was only on the surface though, so once Iran and Pakistan were finally beaten in the conventional war, the leaders American and several European government slowly stepped down from office to rebuild the public's trust, though the use of the Peace Bringer gas was still implemented by many law enforcement groups despite public opinion opposing it.

What no one knew was gas would have reaching effects into human society, when several people exposed to the gas started developing reoccurring muscle based injures ranging pulls, strains or even torn muscle tissue.

These injures were normally treatable with time when they happened rarely, but not when everyday tasks could lead to additional injures before the old ones had healed. To make the matter worse, babies also began to be born with these issues as well, sometimes even being fatal in these new born children.

At first many thought the mother had be exposed to the gas in some way during pregnancy but research quickly revealed that there just as many cases where the father was the only one with a confirmed case of Peace Bringer exposure. This discovery quickly led many researchers believe something in Peace Bringer had mutagenic properties and was soon proven accurate after two years of dedicated research.

Scientists also determined that due to Peace Bringer's heavy use in war and law enforcement over the last few years had exposed much of the world's population to the mutation, but the study also showed not everyone had an active version of the change. This would explain why a fraction of the victims or children born from said victims had this new muscle condition.

Further studies put the ratio of those with an active mutation at 1 in 250 people, but so far no know treatment for the disease existed. Regular exercise, steroids and high protein diets helped to a degree, but not enough to be seen an effective treatment, thus a joint effort was made by all UN member nations was made into medical and genetic research so find a solution...before a new series a riots started!

Much the UNs other plans, such as colonizing planets in the solar system, were put on hold so to put full effort into saving future lives from the fallout what was later called by historians 'The Peace Bringer Wars' but it would take 10 years before needed breakthroughs were made.

Detection for an active mutation had increased over these 10 years, but by the way to remove the genes that held the mutation seemed impossible so far, but new methods to prevent death and avoid being crippled for life were created for those who had an active mutation.

The most obvious treatment was augment the bodies of those with the disease through gene therapy, which was a quickly growing field due to the global level funding into new medical research. The only issues with this treatment was cost, something many parents would hard pressed to pay for given the level of enhancements needed that would make them stronger then even top level athletes.

The only way governments could find a way to help this families was to do one simple thing that was also very disliked by the public, have these children put this strength to use in the military until the debt for enhancements was paid.

Of course with few options available, many parents agreed to this in hopes of saving their still unborn but confirmed active mutation children from a life of illness or death at birth.

The unborn babies would grow up with several key advantages, the first being the obvious improvement in physical strength to the point the upper limits would be the level needed to lift small vehicles overhead with fair bit of effort...something that was unwise because the muscles in their bodies would still be prone to the tearing their mutation causes with they push their limits too far.

Other advantages would greatly increased endurance, healing rate, bone structure, hand eye coordination and reflexes. Some of these were clearly added for the sake of these future men and women were going to be in the army and thus should be given the abilities that would help them thrive and survive, should they ever need to deployed.

Sadly even with the enhanced healing rate and strengthen muscle tissue, it was quickly discovered these children needed a healing rate that was borderline superhuman (something genetic engineering could not provide yet) so a medicine that was called Medi-Fluid was created.

Medi-Fluid was a branch off product of Medi-Gel, both of which are created and produced by a young company called Sirta Foundation. Both were great breakthroughs in the medical field, as Medi-Gel was ideal for external wounds and and Medi-Fluid was built around working with the enhanced healing rates of those with active mutations.

Medi-Fluid could aid normal humans in healing from serious injuries such as broken bones in a month with regular injections, but those with the government granted genetic enhancements to combat the mutation could heal from similar injury in an hour or two with a single dose.

This quickly made these enhanced humans first ever super soldiers and the oldest generation would be key to putting an end to any lingering wars left on Earth by 2062 and allowed the allowed mankind to finally return their attention back to space.

Due the governments of the world being united in this and had been preparing for at least the colonizing of the moon, it took only 7 years to create Armstrong Outpost on the moon and give the human race their first solid footing off Earth.

Despite this foothold, it would not be until 2103 when humanity would finally reach Mars. This was mainly due to the long process of making sure the fallout of the Peace Bringer Wars was handled correctly, as well as try to finally create some semblance of peace with the Middle East.

The Peace Bringer Wars did not make this easy of course and many of the countries were finally starting to ally against the Western and Asian powers, who were also forming a united front due to their joint efforts to build a space colonization plan.

Many thought this would end in one final World War, until pro-democracy groups slowly started to act openly in some of the Middle East nations and gather strength of the public behind them. These groups were still far from forgiving the rest the world powers for the using the Peace Bringer gas, but they knew the world powers had the edge in numbers and technology.

These pro-democracy groups also knew they needed access genetics programs the rest of the world had created, for the sake of the many that would be born with an active mutation. Too many children were dying without such technology and it would be decades before the Middle East caught up on their own.

Of course Middle East still had oil, something the rest of world still needed for fuel and energy, even with push for research to remove this dependency for both Earth and for the future colonies off world. It gave the growing Democracy based groups the edge the needed to take a firm stance against the more developed nations for their action many of the past wars, while still asking for aid.

This aid still came at the same price any other family had to pay, mandatory service in what now called the Alliance Military, a simple fact that the Middle East opposed to (no matter if they were democratic or part of the old ways of rule)

The Alliance had been formed for the joint effort of manned exploration the solar system and create a single organisation that could handle the training of this future army of super soldiers, so to avoid anyone country having more of these genetically enhanced troops then the others.

To say the Middle East was furious at this would have been an understatement. They refused to allow their children to be part of a military force other than that of their homelands and had even made it harder for oil to exported to this 'Alliance' even though the countries apart of it were still sovereign powers at this point.

This slowed but did not stop the world from moving ahead with plans to head for space, pushing for improvements into solar, thermal, hydro and wind powered sources of energy and in some cases building additional nuclear reactors.

In addition, ion based thruster technology was becoming stronger and more effective. It could not be used to launch a space craft but would greatly reduce the need for rocket fuel once it was in space and reaching far off locations like Mars much easier with the increased power in thrust.

Other advances also followed such as improving genetic engineering to the point it could be used on a grown adult. The effects took months or years to fully alter regular humans this way, but it allowed the militaries of the world to enhance their regular troops. The down side was that these soldiers would not have the same level of improvements those with active mutations due to the cost and time needed for such drastic changes being deemed impractical.

Regular troops still greatly benefited from this in spite of this, which in turn boosted both the forces that supported Alliance's army and the ones used by the separate countries that were a part of it. It also aided civilians, as it could remove hereditary traits like poor eye sight and other such traits, which were cheaper when compared to physical enactments of even the regular solider would receive on enlistment.

In addition Medi-Fluid's potency and longevity was increased specifically for the original genetically augmented soldiers, as they had the fortitude to withstand a stronger variant. With the longer time it effected the body it also reduced the number of injections a soldier needed a day to just two or three.

Unfortunately some of the first wave of those who with active mutations were completing their required terms of service by 2080 and the world quickly discovered being trained to live in the military for the first part of your life did not mean you knew what to do once you were out.

They had many of the benefits any other member of the military, such as aid in advanced education and so were high qualified for various jobs. They just often forgot the world around them was much more fragile than the one they were used to or that their non military coworkers did not think in the same way.

In more extreme cases, some of these soldiers were simply to used to being a fighter, they no longer had controlled ways to release their aggression. Some of the ones who kept their military discipline reenlisted, while others went a darker path and entered streets fights or even gangs.

The general public started seeing these men and woman as mindless brutes in some cases, when in reality it was the simple fact they lived a different life style then most and just needed time to adjust to a new way of doing things. This would not happen though as the public demanded immediate action for the less controlled soldiers and so the Alliance Council offered an idea to all its member governments.

The basic plan was make these soldiers that finished their term of service be given the status of Civilian Soldier, still part of the military but placed in occupations that was either controlled by the some branch of government or from those private sectors that were still willing to hire these men and women.

Most of these were already government controlled such as law enforcement agencies, fire fighting and search and rescue. All of which were physically demanding and also still had some semblance of being in a unit. Occupations run by civilians were commonly among the fields of computers, construction and the repairing of various types of vehicles.

Part of what attracted companies to do this despite public opinion was that the Alliance helped covered some of the pay for these possible employees as an incentive. It was not a perfect solution and could have been seen as soldiers with active mutations were practically prisoners to the very governments that had caused their illness, yet the soldiers seemed to be taking it well. Many theorized that being moderately conditioned from young ages for life serving Alliance had most likely caused some degree of brainwashing, a controversial topic that would be debated for decades to come.

While the Alliance was slowly refining their way of dealing with their older generation of active mutation citizens, the Middle East was growing more desperate. Many children were dying from the Peace Bringer mutation or crippled if they survived and the attempt to use oil as leverage was failing, as all it did was speed up the world's need for alternate sources of energy and fuel.

Many parents were starting to give in to the Alliance's demand all children needing augmenting had to serve in the Alliance's armed forces for at least one term of services. The leaders of these countries were still trying to prevent this, saying they would create their own program, but with public was losing patience.

It took the Alliance reaching Mars and setting the ground work for the first colony to make the Middle East leaders to see that had no hope getting the upper hand. They placated the anger of their people by formally joining the Alliance and agreeing to the terms augmentation for those with active mutations.

At the same time the Alliance reorganized the system that handled the growing number people with active mutation, by creating the Heavy Infantry program. The current system was fine it was just at the beginning but the 1 in 250 ratio was not that small number when you thought about it.

It was estimated over a 130 million children were born each year all over the world, it would mean there was roughly 520,000 each year born that would join the program. Even if you take into account that the Middle East lost many of their portion to this number portion during or shortly after birth before joining the Alliance, it was still a great deal of people to have in any armed force. It would sooner or later begin the phase out the regular human military if the 'Heavies' (as they were now referred as) were not consternated in a role that they was most ideal for and freed up other roles for regular humans.

Their main purpose in combat was to be the main fighting force on the frontlines. As the name implied, the Heavy Infantry would have the strongest armor that could be mass produced for such a large force and would also regularly be issued heavy weapons like small scale and easily fired from hip level Gatling guns, along with the standard assault rifle and sidearm. This would in theory allow them to take punishment and return in kind, should war ever start again in any part of the solar system.

What the human race was not expecting was that 47 years after they began to fully colonize Mars that they would find something that had made all of humanity's recent advances look like child's play. Ruins of an ancient race of alien were found at Mars' south pole and gave them the first stepping stones to Mass Effect technology.

A year later, data in the ruins showed one of Pluto's moons was actually another artifact of this race, now known as the Protheans, called a Mass Relay and run off a form of technology called the mass effect. Further translation also made humanity aware of Element Zero, which would be key to unlocking the ability to use this new field of technology.

In 2150 the newly discovered Mass Relay was used to discover Terra Nova, a planet 36 light years away from the Sol System and would become the human race's first colony world away from the home star system.

Over the next several years, the Alliance would spear head the search for more Mass Relays and colony worlds, which were quick to develop because the still mistrusted Heavy Infantry member who had achieved the status of Civilian Soldier and thus placed in occupations that could help build these new worlds.

The physically powerful 'former' soldiers made for an effective labour and police force for new colonies, being to ensure the basic structures were in place and that there was no native wild life that could harm the colonists when they arrived. They also kept this security going well after the colonists arrived by keeping law and order, plus acting as a sort of militia that could support the main military guard

Despite still not being fully accepted by the public, the Heavy Infantry and Civilian Soldier counter parts were highly respected by their very large extended family called the military. Many Heavies tended see each other as sibling or Aunts and Uncles, while the normal human members are seen as cousins.

The outlook has been theorized by many of the higher ranks as a sort of coping mechanize to being bound to Alliance in one way or another for their entire lives. This was something many of those with family history of service could understand in away and often returned the gesture out of respect.

For those who were new to the service it was hit or miss if trust was gained, but new service men of any kind was quickly taught you at least pretend to respect the Heavy Infantry or be shunned by those you served with.

What many did not know that was the Heavy Infantry be one of the many things Alliance would need in the near future to stand against a coming storm. Another one of these thing would an ally that no one in the galaxy would expect to join forces or make first contact with anyone in the year 2155...the Krogan!

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Codex Entries:

Peace Bringer Gas - a biological weapon meant to stop enemies without killing them. The US desired a weapon to take out military targets surrounded by non-combatants, by relaxing the muscles to the point a person could no longer move.

When the mass riot broke out in their own country, it was deployed to end the violence quickly and without risk of server injury or death. It was then distributed allied nations for the same task so they could restore order and focus on the invasion of Israel by Iran and Pakistan.

What no one knew at the time was that it causing what would later be called the Mutation that would render many with an illness allow muscles to tear too easily from normal everyday actions. The ratio of those born with an active version of the Mutation around the worlds is estimated at 1 in 250.

Heavy Infantry - This was an Alliance program to better manage the growing number of Active Mutations who needed large amounts genetic modification before birth to survive the illness. This treatment grant the great strength, endurance, bone strength and increased healing rates as the main benefits, but hand eye coordination and reflexes are also increased due the price needed to be paid for these treatments.

These modifications are too expensive for most and so in exchange for a term of service in the Alliance military (average term is 15 years, some cases 20 in cases of server mutation is detected) The official start of this term is at the age of enlistment at 18, but preparation training is done throughout child for both efficiency and for the child's health as active muscles further reduce the risk of injury further (which would explain why the Heart rarely ever suffers from the effects of the mutation from those treated with gene therapy)

The exercises vary based on age, since for young children would not understand the need for this training but both parents and the Alliance try to gradually lead these children to conventional training such as weight lifting and various forms of cardio.

Unless started sooner (which often does happen) these children are also placed in various forms of martial arts programs by age 12. The most preferred styles would be Aikido, Jujitsu, Judo and Karate though other styles like Boxing, Muay Thia and all forms of Chinese Kenpo were also welcome options. Since such a broad selection of styles were possible many were placed in Mix Marital Arts classes to get a blend of many of these styles and moves from even less commonly known styles like Pankration.

At age 16 the Alliance gradually starts taking over the training (something that was previously left to parents to encourage, out of respect for parental authority) so to add skills like basic firearm training and help the teenagers gain military discipline before 18 and thus make boot camp more of a touch up course and polish skills that were not fully gained during childhood.

The pay for those in the Heavy Infantry was actually lower than the average soldier, this for the sake of speeding up the processes of paying for the genetic engineering used on them that much faster, but is counter balanced by no additional term of service needed additional education (in some cases skills like medical school, sometimes the term of service it put on hold for the education since such skills would been of greater value to Alliance over a foot soldier. Most other types schooling is preferred done once the term of service is complete)

The only time a member of the Heavy Infantry receives full pay is either during a time of war or once mandatory service is complete and the solider chooses to be professional military. Those who choose the later tend to be made officers and left to either lead fellow Heavy Infantry members or transferred to the various programs that aid families with children that will receive gene therapy for Mutation, as they are most familiar with the challenges these families would face.

Due to the life style focused around exercise, enhanced healing rates and regular use of Medi-Fluid, it is estimated these men and woman could have 250+ lifespan compared to a current regular human life span of being at most 150. As not even the first generation of Heavies has had a chance live out a full natural life span yet, this is strictly a theory made by scientists.

Medi-Fluid - created to aid those with active mutations and to also to do the one thing Medi-Gel could not do, speed the human healing rate. Medi-Gel was perfect for saving lives from bleed out and infection of combat wounds, but it does actually effect healing rate as much as the fluid would.

The fluid stimulated the bodies' natural healing mechanisms and used with person who has improved healing rates like the Heavy Infantry, normal combat wounds like a serious cut, flesh wound or sprain can heal in 10 minutes or less. More serious wounds would need more time but such soldiers could recover in 24 hours when it would normally takes months thanks to Medi-Fluid. these rates would seem impressive until humanity discovered the Krogan and Vorcha who had natural healing rates that at least matched or even surpassed Medi-Fluid using Heavy Infantry soldiers.

000

And there is chapter prologue, hope you all liked it and there is not too many grammar mistakes. If anyone knows a good beta reader/editor that does ME stories, please PM me


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